{"id":741792,"date":"2026-07-03T05:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/741792\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:24:21","slug":"cade-cavalli-willson-contreras-suspended-7-games-after-nationals-red-sox-benches-clearing-fracas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/741792\/","title":{"rendered":"Cade Cavalli, Willson Contreras suspended 7 games after Nationals-Red Sox benches-clearing fracas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, who was ejected from Tuesday night\u2019s game after a confrontation with Washington Nationals starting pitcher Cade Cavalli<\/a> that led to a benches-clearing fracas, has been suspended seven games, Major League Baseball announced Thursday. Cavalli, who was not ejected Tuesday despite making comments that incited the incident, was also suspended seven games.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Contreras charged the mound and threw his helmet after Cavalli yelled, \u201cSit down, boy,\u201d following his strikeout of Contreras. Cavalli yelled the phrase loudly enough that it was picked up by the NESN broadcast.<\/p>\n

Cavalli did not acknowledge using the term \u201cboy\u201d after the incident Tuesday, but he apologized <\/a>the following day<\/a>. MLB felt Cavalli\u2019s comment was inappropriate and merited discipline, according to a person briefed on the decision, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.<\/p>\n

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy and utility man Nate Eaton were also ejected from Tuesday\u2019s game, as was Nationals pitcher Miles Mikolas. Mikolas was given a five-game suspension and Eaton was suspended three games. All four players also received undisclosed fines.<\/p>\n

All the players are appealing their suspensions, according to a person briefed on the players\u2019 decisions who was not authorized to speak publicly. The discipline does not begin until the appeals process is complete.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Cade Cavalli, right, did not acknowledge using the term \u201cboy\u201d after the incident on Tuesday, but later issued an apology for his behavior. (Charles Krupa \/ AP Photo)<\/p>\n

Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said Wednesday morning that the team would not discipline Cavalli internally because they did not believe he intended to \u201cdemean someone in some racial way.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Contreras said he did not know if what Cavalli said was racist and would \u201clet MLB handle that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contreras, a native of Venezuela who\u2019s been active in fundraising for the devastation from two massive earthquakes in his home country last week, had also been ejected on Monday night. First-base umpire Nic Lentz deemed Contreras tapping his helmet after a strikeout as a mocking gesture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It marked the first time in Red Sox history that a player had been ejected on back-to-back days. It also marked the 11th ejection of Contreras\u2019 career. The first baseman was suspended for six games last year after an argument with an umpire, but appealed that suspension and eventually served only four games.<\/p>\n

Contreras is a key piece of the Red Sox lineup at a crucial point in the season, and losing him for any amount of time hurts the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old has been the heart of a scuffling Red Sox club after arriving via trade from the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason. He has started all but three games for the Red Sox, posting a team-leading .905 OPS and 18 homers in what\u2019s been the best season of his career thus far.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Evan Drellich contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, who was ejected from Tuesday night\u2019s game after a confrontation with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543,71],"class_list":["post-741792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-washington-nationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116854381861317547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}